Category Archives: Social Media

Angie’s List a pyramid scheme?

Posted on Monday, October 15, 2012 by 2 comments

Interesting critique of Angie’s List on Screenwerk today from a plumber in Seattle.  Angie’s List recently pushed into Vermont where tens of thousands of households use Front Porch Forum for a variety of purposes, including plumber recommendations.

I have years of experience with Angie’s List as a local plumber in Seattle. They have gotten money out of me and gave nothing in return except much trouble from customers that tend to be pretty passive aggressive. Angie’s List get paid on both ends ““ Any contractor listing you see is only visible to you if the contractor is paying Angie’s List through the nose. My cost for Angie’s List “hot leads” was $300 each. Testing Angie’s List cost me $7000 over two years. While paying such high costs for leads may work for a major construction project , it won’t work for a service call where we charge by the 1/4 hour.

Google clicks have gotten as high as $38 per click here in Seattle when the search term used is “plumber” or “plumbing”. On the average it takes 15 clicks to get a call. Do the math on the cost to the guy ringing your doorbell.

Angie’s List cost per job performed was 75% of my company’s average invoice total (about $400). My company does over a thousand jobs a year.

Any homeowner service using this advertising method is paying way too much to maintain any integrity in the service. This type of advertising creating an incredible amount of pressure to convert to a commission-based high profit business model for basic traditional services. If I pay Angies List hundreds of dollars just to ring your doorbell how can I treat you fairly when your plumbing problem requires an hours work? I can’t so I cancelled my advertising contract with Angies List.

Angie’s List uses a unique money making model that actually is a kind of pyramid scheme. They put all the local harvested contractors into their listings but you only will call highly rated ones. In order to be highly rated you must pay Angie Thousands of dollars a year for position in order to be seen AND time in grade is required to accumulate favorable reviews. Only a dozen or so can be in that position. The homeowner only calls the ones at the top so all new advertisers must invest thousands on continuing annual contracts to play the game on Angie’s List…

In my opinion, it is time for both local business and consumers to get control over how we find our services and customers as the marketers are hijacking the business to consumer relationship and forcing costs so high that nobody can bear the costs.

Question: Why should we need out-of-state corporations to connect homeowners to services down the street? Surely there is a simple, inexpensive way for us to know our neighbors and small businesses. We all need to put a little thought and effort in that direction.

Search your FPF archive for past recommendations…

Posted on Wednesday, October 10, 2012 by No comments yet

#VT – Hinesburg resident John Eastman just completed an electrical project for us and did an excellent job!  I found his name in the archives of our Front Porch Forum.

He was affordable, always showed up on time, handled my many questions with patience and the end result is exactly what we had in mind.

If you are looking for an electrician, I highly recommend him.

Posted by Brigitte today on the Hinesburg FPF.

Good to hear…

Posted on Thursday, August 30, 2012 by 2 comments

#VT – Front Porch Forum is one of the best outreach formats we have well worth the money!” Cassandra Brush, CVSWMD.

Black bear neighbor

Posted on Friday, August 10, 2012 by No comments yet

#VT – Donna Faser-Leary writes in the Charlotte Observer this week

Early this summer a new resident arrived in Charlotte: a black bear. The Charlotte Front Porch Forum, an online neighborhood communication resource, has been instrumental in keeping Charlotters informed of the bear’s whereabouts and activities. What first appeared to be a chance sighting soon became a frequent occurrence from East Charlotte to West, especially around the Mt. Philo area. Reports of destroyed birdfeeders, strewn trash bags and raided compost piles have been evidence of a bear’s visit. Only one bear has been occasionally sighted, and it has not shown any aggression toward either animals or humans but has merely given a huffing sound as a warning of its presence, a normal bear response…

People need to put away birdfeeders and store trash and other bear-appealing items in lock-safe containers. Don’t leave cookout or other food supplies out in the open unattended, and lock your sheds. Prevention is key. If a bear keeps coming around, Drury suggests hanging heavy-duty balloons loaded with some cayenne (hot) pepper powder off a shed or porch overhang. The bear will pop it, and “one time is usually all it takes.” Shooting at the bear with rubber bullets, which will scare but not kill it, is also an option…

Another online resource to tap into is the Charlotte Front Porch Forum, a free neighborhood communication service open only to people in your town. To join, go to frontporchforum.com. It will help you track bear sightings, find your dog, sell your stuff, get robbery alerts and keep informed about local issues and events.